Some of you may remember that some time ago, I provided a brief overview of using VoiceAlert on APRS as well as some thoughts and opinions on the topic. If you have forgotten this post, you can read it here. By the end of that post, I had pretty much convinced myself that I was not interested in using this particular setup. However, my thoughts on that have changed somewhat.

The reason for this “change of heart” so to speak is due to the feature being built in to the APRS settings of the new Kenwood TM-D710A. With this function being in the menu for setting up APRS, you do not need to have it programmed into the frequency information and also, the software inside the radio will handle the way the received information is processed.

Where I did not use VoiceAlert previously when running APRS, I do use it now that I have a radio that has the function built in. From what I have experienced, VoiceAlert operation with the TM-D710A works like this:

The selected tone is transmitted when a packet is sent or when you key the mic on that “side” of the radio. Everything on that frequency is received by the radio no matter what the tone or if there is one and all packets are reported on the radio display. If a packet or voice transmission is heard with a tone that is the same as the tone you have set, that information (data burst or voice transmission) is played through the radio’s audio output (the speaker) so that you know there is someone within range.

All things considered, I like the way that this feature was programmed into this radio and now use this method of operation. In fact, I have even made a couple of contacts that I otherwise would not have made due to the use of this VoiceAlert feature when running APRS.

For radios without this feature built-in like this one has, my previous thoughts still stand, but if the radio has it built-in to the software I see no reason not to use it and highly recommend that you turn the feature on when you are at the radio.